Dudley's Dreaded Day
by AlElizabeth
Summary: Set Post-Hogwarts/Next Generation. The day Dudley Dursley always feared has come: His daughters have received their letter to Hogwarts. He learns though, that having witches in the family might not be as terrible as he once thought.


The day Dudley Dursley's daughters received their letter to Hogwarts started like any ordinary day.

It was a rather gloomy Sunday with low, dark clouds threatening rain.

Annette, Dudley's wife, squinted through the window above the sink into the back garden.

"I do hope the rain holds off until this evening," she told Dudley without turning around, "It will ruin the twins' birthday if it doesn't."

Dudley lowered the newspaper he was reading and smiled reassuringly at his wife, a notoriously pessimistic woman, "If it does rain, Dear, we can have the party inside."

Mrs. Dursley turned sharply, the mere thought of having twenty-five eleven-year olds in her house was enough to bring her to tears.

"Or we can move the party to next weekend," Dudley replied quickly, reaching out to pat his wife's thin arm as she handed him a cup of tea.

Dudley Dursley, his slightly neurotic wife and their two daughters lived in a quiet neighbourhood of Surrey, only a few minutes' drive away from Dudley's parents.

Before Annette could make a negative comment about having their daughters' party the coming weekend, the girls hurried down the stairs and stepped into the kitchen.

"Happy Birthday, girls," Dudley grinned and held his arms out for hugs.

"Thanks Dad," first Evie and then Franny came and hugged their father.

"Can we open some presents now?" Franny asked as she sat down at the table.

"You're to wait until the party," Annette told her, "Do you want toast?"

Franny stuck her lower lip out and pouted, but nodded that she did want toast.

"You're sure Gran and Grandpa are coming?" Evie asked Dudley.

"Of course, Sweetheart," Dudley told her, "They wouldn't miss your birthday for the world."

Taking up his newspaper again, Dudley listened as his daughters guessed out loud what presents they might receive. A strange mixture of nostalgia and disgust filled him as he recalled his own eleventh birthday and the events of that day. If he was able to, he would go back and change things in a heartbeat.

"Dudley? Dear? Can you hear me?"

Dudley lowered his paper to see his wife and daughters staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"I think someone dropped the post off," Annette told him in a tone that suggested she had already repeated herself several times.

Dudley chuckled, "That's ridiculous, it's Sunday, there's no post on Sunday."

"Would you just go look? I've almost got your toast ready," Annette asked and turned back to the kitchen counter.

Dudley looked to his daughters. Evie and Franny simply shrugged and continued eating their breakfast.

Sighing, Dudley stood up, "Probably just some rubbish post."

As he walked away from the kitchen, however, a strange feeling of déjà vu hit him and he stopped.

They never delivered post on a Sunday, unless… unless the _they _in question didn't adhere to the rules of English post offices.

"Dudley? Are you all right?" Annette's voice called out from the kitchen and he shook his head, running a hand through his blond hair.

"Fine," he called back, "I'm fine. Just a second."

"Your toast is getting cold," Annette replied.

Dudley forced his feet to move across the wine-coloured carpeting as he approached the front door. Peering down, there was indeed two pieces of mail. Two envelopes in fact and not the regular, crisp white envelopes he was used to seeing. No, these two envelopes harkened back to a day many years ago when Dudley's life changed forever.

Bending down, he reached out for the twin pieces of post, his fingers trembling.

"I don't bloody believe it," he muttered under his breath and picked up the envelopes. They made of thick paper, cream-coloured with his daughter's names written on them:

_Miss E Dursley_

_Second Bedroom on the Left_

_17 Chapel Crescent_

_Kirkmarsh_

_Surrey _

And the second one:

_Miss F Dursley_

_Only Bedroom on the Right_

_17 Chapel Crescent_

_Kirkmarsh_

_Surrey_

Dudley felt his mouth go dry as he read the words written across the envelopes. There had to be some mistake. His mind reeled, struggling to find the lie. It was all well and good for his cousin to be… well, different, but not his daughters, not Evie and Franny.

But Dudley was in fact only lying to himself. He closed his eyes as he recalled the strange events that surrounded his children, which he had desperately tried to shrug off as nonsense.

He remembered when the girls were five and Mr. Harken's Pomeranian had bitten little Franny. The bite wasn't bad, it hadn't even broken the skin, but the next day when Dudley was leaving for work, he'd seen Mr. Harken across the street, speaking with a couple of police detectives, certain that someone had turned his beloved Millie into a large, dog-shaped marshmallow.

Then, when the girls were eight, Evie climbed the chestnut tree in the backyard while playing and leaped several feet onto the roof of the house, a span too far for a small child to cross on her own.

"Daddy?"

Dudley turned around and saw Evie standing in the kitchen doorway.

"Are you all right?"

Dudley forced himself to smile.

He didn't want to give Evie and Franny their letters but he knew what would happen if he didn't.

"There's a letter here for you and your sister," he held the envelopes out to his daughter.

"From who?" Evie took the post and peered curiously at the envelope addressed to her, "Is it from Gran and Grandpa?"

"Take them into the kitchen and we'll open them together," Dudley told her, his face starting to ache from his struggle to keep smiling. He was going to have to have a long conversation with Annette after this.

Evie ran back to the kitchen and sat down, tearing into her letter even before her sister had a chance to look at hers.

Dudley returned to his seat and refused to meet his wife's eye as he watched his daughters open and read their letters.

"I'm a witch?" Evie asked, looking up at her father, "Daddy, what does that mean?"

"Dudley what's this about?" Annette asked, stepping up behind her daughters and reaching out to take the letter from Evie.

Dudley's heart was pounding in his chest and he felt a bead of sweat slide down his temple.

"My letter's the same!" Franny announced, "I'm a witch too!"

"You two get to go to a special school in September," Dudley spoke as gently as possible, "With other children like you."

"But what about my friends here?" Franny asked.

Evie took the second page of her sister's letter from her hands and looked over the list of supplies.

"Daddy! Can I get an owl?" Evie cried excitedly.

"Where is this school? When did you apply? When were you going to tell me about this?" Annette asked, lowering Evie's letter so that the girl took it back from her mother.

"It's… hard to explain, Dear," Dudley began, "But they just kind of… know which child is magical… you don't apply…"

From his wife's expression, he could tell Annette did not believe him.

"Annette… Dear, can we talk about this after the girls' party?" Dudley asked sweetly.

"No, we will talk about this now," his wife hissed.

Dudley sighed, "Girls, finish your breakfast."

Standing, he came round the table and took his wife by the elbow, leading her reluctantly into the parlour and hopefully out of earshot of their daughters.

Arms crossed over her chest, Annette frowned at Dudley.

"Why would you do this? We don't have the money for a special school! Where even is this… this… Hogwash?"

"Hogwarts," Dudley corrected.

"Whatever!" Annette snapped.

"I'm not sure exactly where it is but it's a very fine school," Dudley told his wife, feeling as though he were lying through his teeth.

"A train? Is this a sleepaway school?" Annette asked and Dudley nodded.

"How do you know about this place?"

"I have a cousin who went there," Dudley answered.

"You never told me you had any cousins," Annette practically glared at her husband.

"We weren't all that close," Dudley explained.

Annette narrowed her eyes, "And what if we don't send the twins?"

"You don't want to do that," Dudley assured her.

His wife widened her eyes, "Please, Love, let's not argue right now. I'll explain everything tonight, all right? That's a promise. Let's not fight on the girls' birthday."

"Fine," Annette sniffed, "But after the party you are going to tell me _everything._"

Dudley just smiled.

_HP_

As Dudley Dursley stood in front of the Hogwarts Express, he wondered why he was ever worried about his girls' getting their letters. That day had been easy compared to today.

Platform 9 ¾ rang with the sounds of families saying goodbye to their children, some, like him, for the very first time. The humid air made Dudley's suit stick to his skin uncomfortably and plastered his blond hair to his scalp.

"Are you sure its safe?" Annette spoke in Dudley's ear to be heard.

"As safe as houses," Dudley assured his wife. She still was not completely convinced they should be sending their daughters to Hogsbreath… sorry, Hogwarts, but, Dudley had held fast to his decision.

"Dudley?"

Dudley looked around to see who had called his name, for one brief moment worried that a co-worker from Grunnings was also sending their child to the wizarding school but then he caught sight of a shock of unruly black hair and bright green eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses.

"Bloody hell," Dudley's grip tightened on his wife's hand as his cousin made his way through the crowd towards him.

"Dudley, I'd ask what you're doing here but I guess we both know," Harry Potter smiled.

"Uh yeah," Dudley muttered, "Um… this is my wife, Annette. Annette, this is my cousin I was telling you about."

Harry held his hand out to Dudley's wife and she shook it.

"How long has it been?" Dudley asked, trying to make conversation.

"Eleven years," Harry told him.

From his cousin's expression Dudley could see that Harry held no grudge against him and that greatly eased his nerves.

"Are these your daughters?" Harry asked, looking down at the twins.

"Yes, this is Evelyn and Frances," Dudley said, "Franny, Evie, say hello to your uncle."

Suddenly shy, the girls just stared at Harry.

"Annette, why don't you get the girls a seat on the train?" Dudley told his wife and she paused for a moment before nodding and took their daughters' hands and led them towards the Hogwarts Express.

"You seem to be taking this rather well," Harry told Dudley.

"I don't have much choice," he replied, then shook his head, "Actually, it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

Harry glanced at his cousin from the corner of his eye, "What did you think would happen?"

Dudley sighed, not wanting to reveal his hidden fears, least of all to his cousin. Then he remembered who his cousin was.

"I was worried that this would change them, somehow," Dudley admitted, "That somehow, they wouldn't be my daughters anymore. Stupid, right?"

"I don't think so," Harry told him.

Dudley didn't say anything.

"Do your Mum and Dad know?" Harry asked.

Dudley nodded.

"How'd they take it?"

"Mum just sort of cried… but I think she's actually happy about it, and Dad well… he'll get over it," Dudley muttered.

Now it was Harry's turn to nod.

"Listen, can you answer me this one question? Are Evie and Franny going to be all right? Really?"

Harry smiled, "They're going to be just fine."

Dudley didn't return the smile but nodded. The crimson steam engine's whistle blew, signaling it was only a few minutes before it left the station.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you again," Dudley said lamely.

Harry nodded and held his hand out. Reluctantly Dudley took it.

Turning away, Dudley joined his wife on the edge of the platform to wave goodbye to their daughters.

Harry made his way towards the front of the train and joined Ginny, putting an arm around her waist.

"You'll never guess who I just saw," he told her.

Ginny gave him a bemused look.

"Who?" she asked.

"My cousin," he replied.

Ginny's brown eyes widened, "No!"

"He's got two daughters going to Hogwarts," Harry told her.  
"We should let James know he has cousins on the train," Ginny suggested but Harry shook his head.

"Why not?" Ginny asked.

"Let's let them figure it out on their own," Harry told her.

Ginny shrugged and waved at their eldest child peering through the window in front of them.

Dudley reached out and gripped Annette's hand tightly in his own as the train gave another short whistle blast and then began slowly rolling forward. Annette rested her head on Dudley's shoulder and remained that way until the Hogwarts Express became a red speck in the distance.

**Author's Note:**

**Hello folks, I'm still here! I have been struggling with my mental health recently and have been finding it very difficult to find the motivation to write. I wanted to at least get one story out so you would know I haven't disappeared.**

**As always, if you enjoyed this story, please leave a review. **


End file.
